The 27 scariest moments of the financial crisis

Then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson looks over at his colleagues including then Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and then NY Fed President Tim Geithner.

Seven years ago, the US economy went into recession, the US housing market crashed, and credit markets seized bringing the banking industry to its knees. It was a global financial crisis.

Businesses went down and workers lost jobs. And Americans were losing hope, which only made things work.

For many, the low critical moment was when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt on September 15, 2008. But the memory of critical events before and after that fateful day is slowly fading. Hearings, lawsuits, bailouts — it all gets muddled together.

Business Insider has outlined the major moments from 2007 to 2009. From the initial reports of subprime defaults to the collapse of Lehman Brothers to AIG's second bailout, here are the 27 scariest moments of the financial crisis.

Note: Former Business Insider reporter Steven Perlberg contributed to this feature.

APRIL 2, 2007: New Century files for bankruptcy. It was the largest subprime lender in the United States.

JUNE 21, 2007: Merrill Lynch sells off assets in two Bear Stearns hedge funds as the funds hemorrhage billions of dollars on bad subprime bets.

Matthew Tannin, former investment bank Bear Stearns hedge fund manager, is escorted by law enforcement officials to a waiting car after being arrested in New York June 19, 2008, after a federal criminal probe into the collapse of funds he and fellow former hedge fund manger Ralph Cioffi oversaw, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. REUTERS/Chip East

AUG. 9, 2007: France's largest bank, BNP Paribas, freezes withdrawals from three investment funds after U.S. subprime mortgage losses crush markets. "The complete evaporation of liquidity in certain market segments of the U.S. securitization market has made it impossible to value certain assets fairly regardless of their quality or credit rating," BNP said in the release.

An employee walks behind the logo of BNP Paribas in a company's building in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, June 2, 2014. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

OCT. 24, 2007: Merrill Lynch announces an $8.4 billion quarterly loss, the largest in its history, thanks to write-downs on subprime mortgages.

OCT. 31, 2007: Meredith Whitney says Citigroup will have to cut its dividend. Later, it does.

OCT to NOV 2007: Many CEOs would not make it through the financial crisis. Stan O'Neal at Merrill and Chuck Prince at Citigroup both exit, taking monster severance packages with them. O'Neal, for one, walked out with $161.5 million.

DEC. 11, 2007: The FOMC reduces the federal funds rate to 4.25% and cuts the primary credit rate to 4.75%.

MARCH 16, 2008: JPMorgan Chase buys Bear Stearns for $2 a share in a fire sale (later it would be $10 a share). The Federal Reserve finances the deal, providing $30 billion so Bear doesn't go bankrupt.

SEPT. 14, 2008: Bank of America buys Merrill Lynch for $50 billion.

SEPT. 16, 2008: For only the second time in history, a money market fund "breaks the buck" and reports share value below $1. Americans run on money market funds, long considered safe havens, en masse. $140 billion has been withdrawn year-to-date.

A specialist trader works on the floor of the New York Stock ExchangeThomson Reuters

OCT. 8, 2008: The New York Fed bails out AIG for the second time, for $37.8 billion.

OCT. 13, 2008: Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson sits down with nine major bank CEOs. When they leave the room hours later, the federal government has taken a huge equity position in Wall Street. The total bailout package looks more like $2.25 trillion, well more than the original $700 billion available.

OCT. 16, 2008: Warren Buffett authors a New York Times op-ed called "Buy American. I Am." He gets absolutely crushed by critics when markets crash further. Rising stock prices in the post-crisis years would later vindicate him.

Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett is pictured in the audience as U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the 2010 Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, October 5, 2010. Reuters/Jason Reed

OCT 2008: Commentators wonder if this is the end of life as we know it. "The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is claiming another casualty: American-style capitalism," wrote The Washington Post's Anthony Faiola. Simon Jenkins at The Guardian called this line of thinking "journalistic wish-fulfillment and glee."